May 9, 2013, Round Top (Tahoe Area)

After a couple days of hiking and dodging thunderstorms, I was ready to get back on the skis.  Unfortunately, the Sierra have had their second poor snow year in a row, so options were pretty limited.  Looking over the map, I saw that Round Top is 10,000+ ft, and faces North towards Carson Pass, situated at just over 8,000 ft.  It seemed promising, so I drove up in the morning from a great free valley camp spot tucked into the pine and granite boulders along the Upper Truckee River.

Parking at Carson Pass, I was able to shoulder my skis for about five minutes, and then switch to skinning on continuous snow all of the way up the west shoulder of Round Top.  Some of the steeper chutes and rock face were melted out, but there was still deep enough snow for skiing off of the shoulder.  Talking with a local skier on the same route, it sounds like this was pretty much it for the season down there, with maybe the exception of driving down to Tioga Pass.  South facing slopes already seem very dry for May, so hopefully they will get some moisture down there before fire season kicks in.